Anti-war protesters go after Bush at home

Group, which included mothers of soldiers killed in Iraq, is halted 5 miles from ranch

MICHAEL HEDGES, Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle |
August 7, 2005

CRAWFORD - Some U.S. veterans of the Iraq war and mothers of men who died in combat there joined an anti-war protest near President Bush's ranch Saturday and predictably were stopped from delivering to Bush their demand to bring American troops home.

The demonstration by about 50 people was led by Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., who said her son Casey was killed in Baghdad in April 2004. She said she was motivated to protest by Bush's remark last week in Dallas that those who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan sacrificed their lives for a noble cause.

"I want to ask George Bush what noble cause my son died for," she said. "I don't want him to use my son's name or my family's name to justify more killing."

After driving in a caravan led by a red, white and blue bus to within about six miles of Bush's ranch, the group walked another mile through the withering, near-triple-digit heat, chanting slogans, such as "W killed her son."

They were stopped by a phalanx of local law enforcement officers and U.S. Secret Service agents.

Sheehan, who heads a group called Gold Star Families For Peace, clutched a picture of her son as a 7-month-old and vowed to stay near the ranch until Bush agreed to meet with her.

No one from the ranch, where the president and first lady Laura Bush spent the day, directly acknowledged the protesters.

Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said, "We mourn the loss of every life, and Americans deeply appreciate those who have made the supreme sacrifice.

"The president has met with hundreds of families of those fallen. He grieves with all those who have lost loved ones," the spokesman added.

Among the protesters was Amy Branham of Houston, who said her 22-year-old son, Jeremy Smith, was killed in a vehicular accident at Fort Hood in February 2004, just before his unit was to ship out for Iraq.

"Iraq has claimed so many victims that no one is even counting those who died in preparation and those who committed suicide after getting back because of what they saw," she said.

Garett Reppenhagen, 30, said he returned from Iraq in February after a tour of duty as a scout and sniper with the 1st Infantry Division.

"Almost every day I was there, I saw something that made me hate the war," he said. "I saw dead children and women, injured Americans."

Some of the protesters had vowed to get arrested. A few of the most strident tried to accomplish that by calling local police officers fascists and shouting personal insults at them. But as of late Saturday, no one had been detained, a police official said.

Most of the protesters left the area after about a half hour, leaving Sheehan and a few others settled in a shallow ditch next to a one-lane highway, surrounded by scraggly brush and a few cacti.